2018 MN Mid Range Prone State Championship - North Star Rifle Club

Last weekend, the North Star Rifle Club hosted the 2018 Mid Range Prone Minnesota State Championship. After some early morning thunderstorms flooded the creek, the rest of the weekend turned out to be about perfect for prone shooting. Light winds, cool temps, and overcast skies made the targets very friendly, and some excellent scores were shot.

The course of fire for both days was the traditional MRP “Mini Palma” course of 20 shots at the 300, 500, and 600 yard lines. As good as conditions were, it took a 200 to win any stage all weekend, and there were quite a few 200’s that didn’t win! Randy Blaha snuck up from the Master class to take the 300-yard stage on Saturday morning with an excellent 200-14x, leaving the top-heavy class of High Master shooters scratching our heads. I managed a pair of 16x cleans at 500 and 600 to take those stages, but both Jay Johnson and Texas Gentleman Stacey Tamulinas kept all their points for the day to finish with perfect 600’s. Jay’s 600-35 was a MN state record for about 5 minutes until Stacey finished up his 600-44x to take the day 1 win. Bruce Rawlings led the combined MA/EX/SS class by a hair – his 594-32x just a single point ahead of Randy Blaha and Dan Marquart. Rain was threatening again as we finished up the individual matches for the day, and Cap’n Bob Peasley wisely decided to scrap the team match in favor of getting everyone on the other side of the creek before it spilled it’s banks again.

With 2 shooters clean starting day 2, I was pretty much out of the agg, but I wanted to at least make a good showing for the day. I felt good about my 200-16x to start the day off, but Stacey’s 200-18x left me looking like a piker. Jay was also clean with 12 X’s at 300, so he and the Surgeon were both still perfect with 2 stages left. Dan Marquart fired a fine 199-8x to top the combined class before we all headed back to the 1500-foot line.

At 500, Mr. Johnson put his foot down with a 200-14x, while I lost one, and Stacey lost 2. Jay was now in the driver’s seat – the state title was his to win or lose. Marquart wins again in the combined class, giving him a big lead there with one stage left.

At 600, conditions held just as perfectly as they had all weekend, and I managed the only clean with another 200-16x. Jay had 2 get away early in the string giving a ray of hope to the Surgeon; but this was Jay’s weekend. My 599-45x topped day 2, but Jay’s excellent 2-day agg score of 1198-75x was untouchable for the title - Jay Johnson is your 2018 MN MRP Champion. That little 6mm Dasher round is tough to beat. Jay’s last MRP match with this rifle resulted in a perfect 800 score in a 4x600 match in Lacrosse, and Jay extended the clean streak to a very impressive 9 straight strings before any 9’s showed up.

Congratulations to Jay, and thanks to Cap’n Bob and the NSRC crew for hosting another great match. This was my last match for the year at North Star, but OTC shooters have a couple more opportunities to shoot this beautiful range with matches coming up on June 23 & 24, and the 2-day EIC Leg Match Spectacular on August 18 &19. If you are in the hunt for the Distinguished Rifleman badge, the 2-day EIC should definitely be on your calendar!

Best,

Erik Rhode

2018 MN State Mid-Range Prone Champion - Jay Johnson with 1196-75x

Video Courtesy of Mark Havlik

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Erik Rhode

Erik is a sling shooter, President/Founder of the Palma Alliance™, and a member of the US National Rifle Team.